SHADOWFEVER by Karen Marie Moning

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Date Published: January 18, 2011
ISBN: 978-0385341677
Paranormal, Fantasy
Trade Sized Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained via Library


Lost in the Silvers, mourning not only Jericho Barrons’s death but the fact that she has killed him, MacKayla Lane vows revenge against the forces that led her to this moment. She sits and pours out her grief and then turns that overwhelming grief, to a strength no one would have ever expected from her. Her purpose firm, she begins her journey back to the now destroyed Dublin, only to find herself in the company of the Darroc, the Lord Master. The creature who destroyed her sister, or so she has believed through the agonizing months that led her to this point. With each step she begins to realize just who she is.

Or does she?

As she continues her journey, first to the White Mansion with its myriad changing rooms, then to Dublin, each time an answers appears, more questions come on its heels. Who is she? Where has she come from? Why didn’t she realize she loved Barrons before she lost him? Can she protect her parents and those she still loves while appearing to turn her back on them? Each time she steps forward with her vision clear, another situation blindsides her. Yet Mac will not back down.

Like pretty much every reader who has followed this series, I waited, at times not all that patiently for Karen Marie Moning’s SHADOWFEVER. Devoted fans will not be pleased with my review. I had to sit and consider was I rating the book or the author, because if it were the author’s prior books she is one of my favorites. This book, however, was a disappointment for me. While it is a decent read, it is not her best work. Not so much because it is written in the first person, with several characters all clamoring to tell their side of the story. It is a fantasy yet at times the fantasies inside the fantasy and again inside the fantasy become a bit much. There were threads that I felt could have been tied off although there is the promise of another book.

I was completely dissatisfied with what Barrons is or isn’t. There is a reference to traveling by boat but it doesn’t come up again. We don’t know why he is immortal and the author avoids having to answer, by having his men tell Mac they will kill her if she asks any questions about him. It’s a nifty way to avoid revealing information but it did not satisfy me as a reader. I was enticed by the aspects that reminded me of the Cathars and the legends that surround them, and I wondered if that was perhaps the root of his existence. Mac’s continual references to when she was Pri-ya became a bit over done. After the first twenty or so times I didn’t need to be told again.

The ending was a surprise. Very dramatic, as is the scene where Mac meets her real parents. I enjoyed the earlier books of this series more than SHADOWFEVER and while I felt let down by this latest installment, I’m not sorry I read it.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.